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Memphis Police Shut Down Scorpion Unit Tied To Deadly Beating; Timeline of Tyre Nichols' Arrest And Fatal Beating; CA Man Who Disarmed Monterey Park Gunman To Receive Medal For Bravery; Interview With Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott; Paul Pelosi Attack Suspect Trafficks In Conspiracy Theories; Israel Set To Demolish Home Of Gunman In Attack Near Synagogue; Pence On Classified Docs Found At His Home: "Mistakes Were Made". Aired 2-3p ET

Aired January 29, 2023 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:28]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Hi. And thanks so much for joining me. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington, D.C. in today for Fredricka Whitfield.

A major move by the Memphis Police Department. Less than 24 hours after the release of the video showing the brutal beathing of Tyre Nichols, the department has announced it's permanently deactivating the so-called Scorpion Unit. All five officers charged in Nichols' death were members of that unit which was tasked with tackling the city's rising crime.

This move coming after Nichols' family and protesters around the country demanded the unit be dissolved.

CNN's Isabel Rosales has more on these developments.

Isabel, what are you learning?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica. The police chief, Chief Cerelyn C.J. Davis, the Memphis mayor touted the early successes the Scorpion unit even in the statement that she put out. The chief talking about how it was disbanded, she touted the quality work of this unit. But clearly there's been tensions between the community and this Scorpion Unit.

So what happened here is that the police chief, she met with members that were not involved in the beating of Tyre Nichols and determined with those members that it was in the best interest of the community to disband.

This goes to the wishes -- the direct wishes of Tyre Nichols' family, his mom and his dad, and also activists and the family attorneys as well to deactivate and permanently disband this unit.

So here is what we know about the Scorpion Unit. This is a very specialized unit that is, Jessica, relatively new. This was created back in November of 2021 with the focus on cracking down on a surge of crime and to drive around and really target violent areas of Memphis.

And you've got to remember, this is 2021 where Memphis actually broke the record in high number of homicides. So this was the chief's response. The Scorpion Unit was her response.

But it comes with a history of controversy and tactics. The tactics and police conduct of this unit, they've been called into question by the Nichols family, by the attorneys who say that they drive around in unmarked cars and sometimes were unnecessarily aggressive especially to black people in the community. Attorney Ben Crump says that this deactivation of this unit -- this is a positive step forward but the beating of Tyre Nichols, this really, Jessica goes beyond the individual officers and their color. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR NICHOLS FAMILY: As responsible as those five officers were for killing Tyre Nichols and that reprehensible conduct we saw on that video, we think that this is part of the culture of the Scorpion unit and so we demand that they disband it immediately before we see anything like this happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: Attorney there Ben Crump and the other attorney Antonio Romanucci (ph) they penned an open letter saying that the Scorpion Unit, it is not unique to Memphis and really calling for a nationwide reckoning and review of cities all over into these specialized units because they say that without transparency, without oversight, that these units can really morph into a wolf pack of misconduct and mentality that really enables aggressive encounters that they say terrorize minority communities, Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Isabel Rosales for us. Thanks so much for that reporting.

And with prosecutors now building their case against the five former Memphis police officers charged with murder, we're getting a closer look at exactly how this deadly encounter unfolded.

CNN's Boris Sanchez has more on the timeline and we want to warn you, some of what you're about to see is extremely graphic and contains strong language.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of the car. Get (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) car.

TYRE NICHOLS, VICTIM: I didn't do anything.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police body camera footage shows that officers first encountered Tyre Nichols at this intersection in Memphis. It was about 8:24 p.m. on January 7th when they pulled him over. He stopped his car in the middle of that left turning lane and almost

immediately officers withdrew their weapons and they rushed his car demanding that he get out.

In seconds, they ripped him from the vehicle. Tyre was on the ground struggling. They deployed pepper spray. He was demanding an explanation, trying to figure out why they stopped him to begin with.

[14:04:53]

SANCHEZ: A struggle ensued. He finally wound up on his feet and he took off heading in that direction.

Officers discharged a taser at the 29-year-old but apparently it misses. They begin to chase him as other officers are called to the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Young mal, black, slim build, blue jeans and a hoodie.

Down on Ross (ph) when we last saw him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, give me your hands. Give me your hands.

SANCHEZ: The body camera footage picks up about a quarter mile away and eight minutes later at this intersection. It shows two officers on top of Tyre, beating him and pepper spraying him, all as he calls out for his mother.

Over the next five minutes, that mounted police surveillance camera shows what unfolded here. Officers bludgeoning him with punches and kicks and a night stick. Much of the blows coming with Tyre not posing any apparent threat.

Eventually it's here at this intersection that they drag his body and slump him over onto a police vehicle. All of this unfolding only about 80 yards from his mother's front door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to get sprayed again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch out. Watch out

SANCHEZ: Then officers are seen fist bumping and heard speculating whether he was on drugs while Tyre Nichols is slumped over and bleeding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's high.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit up, bro. Sit up, man.

SANCHEZ: At 8:41 p.m., two medical personnel arrive on the scene. They have been placed on leave as their response to the incident is investigated.

It isn't until 9:02 p.m., 21 minutes later, that an ambulance finally pulls into view of the camera, rushing Tyre Nichols to the hospital where three days later he dies.

Boris Sanchez, CNN -- Memphis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Boris, thank you.

And across the country people are remembering Tyre Nichols, not just for how he died, but also for how he lived.

In Memphis, people held a Skate for Tyre tribute event this weekend. He was an avid skateboarder. And his family has launched a GoFundMe campaign where some of that money designated to build a skate park in his honor.

A California man who is being hailed as a hero for disarming the Monterey Park mass shooter is being honored today. The city of Alhambra is giving 26-year-old Brandon Tsay a medal of bravery at their Lunar New Year Festival.

CNN's Camila Bernal is live in Alhambra, California, with the latest. Camila, tell us about this event.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, this is a very similar event to what we saw last weekend in Monterey Park. So I want to show sort of what's happening there. And what they're doing is trying to give a balance between celebrating the Lunar New Year and also honoring and remembering the victims in Monterey Park.

There's going to be a moment of silence where they're going to honor every single one of those victims. 11 lives, 11 families that were affected by this. These are two communities that are very close together, and people are out trying to celebrate, what they couldn't do last weekend after the shooting.

So you're seeing families, you're seeing children, everybody just coming together while also honoring and remembering those victims.

We know that Brandon Tsay is getting honored. He's expected to be here in a couple of hours.

He spoke to Anderson Cooper about that moment when he took the gun away from that shooter where he had to wrestle him and do everything he could to keep other people safe.

And that's what the members of this community here are going to do today, thank him for those efforts, thank him for what he did about a week ago when he was brave enough to confront that shooter.

Again, it is a balance between honoring and remembering while also celebrating because this is a community that, of course, is coming together to celebrate the new year and that wants to have that positivity while also being sensitive to 11 families that are grieving today and that have had a very difficult week, Jessica.

DEAN: No doubt about that. Camila Bernal for us in California, thanks so much.

And still to come this afternoon, in a bizarre phone call to a San Francisco reporter, the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi's husband showed no remorse and lamented that he was not better prepared for the attack. Exactly what he said, that's next.

[14:09:55]

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DEAN: In Baltimore, at least one person was killed and two others wounded in a shooting Saturday night. The police believe at least one gunman opened fire at an intersection hitting people on the sidewalk and inside a vehicle.

The driver, a 43-year-old man was killed resulting in a car crash that injured two children, a 3-year-old who is now in stable condition and a 2-month-old who is listed in critical but stable condition.

The mayor passionately calling on the community to step up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BRANDON SCOTT, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: Damn and it, it's time for us to stop acting like that. We can be better. It's on us. This isn't on anybody else.

It's not on the police to make us be better for ourselves. We can do that, but when are we going to do that? And when are all these tough dudes going to actually be tough enough to say, it's not cool to be shooting at women and children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:14:53]

DEAN: Again, a 3-year-old and a 2-month-old injured in that shooting. Police say the two surviving adults are both in stable condition today.

And joining me now, the man you just heard from, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. Mayor, great to have you on. Thanks for making time for us.

Let's first just start with this case itself. Do you know anymore on leads or a suspect or suspects in this shooting?

SCOTT: No. Our detectives are still working, Jessica -- and thank you for having me. They're still working to find out. Coming through video, talking to folks, doing everything that they normally do.

We have the best homicide detectives in the world in Baltimore Police Department. We do know now, even though they're still in conditions that we wish they were not in, neither the 3-month-old or the 2-month- old were not shot, thankfully. But people were shot there. And we're going to continue to push, apply

pressure to the community, to everyone, to people that were out there because there were dozens of people out there, and someone knows who did this, and someone has to step up.

We will find this person and turn them over to the other parts of the justice system.

DEAN: And is there any indication this was a targeted incident, in the sense that they were targeting this person that was killed in the car, or do we know yet?

SCOTT: We don't know yet. I think what I would say to your audience is that there's a lot about this (INAUDIBLE) post covid crime wave being like the 90s. This is not. The reality is people are shooting at each other, killing each other over basic conflict, over people getting left by a girlfriend and she's getting a new boyfriend, over something that was said on the Internet.

So who knows. But we know whatever it was it should not have ended up in people being shot, being killed, young babies' lives being put in the balance.

That's the reality and something that we have to deal with in this country. How are we going to deal with this disease known as gun violence. The prevalence of guns, how guns keep getting into these communities where there are no gun stores.

How are we going to hold every single person and system responsible from the person that pulled the trigger, the person that (INAUDIBLE) purchased or trafficked that weapon into that neighborhood, from manufacturers that continue to sell to folks that they know are going to give guns over to other people, and those manufacturers like the ghost gun companies who are going around our gun laws when we want people to have rightful gun ownership and selling them to people that they know shouldn't have them in the first place.

DEAN: Yes. And I can hear the passion in your voice and the frustration that I'm sure you're feeling as an executive for your city, there's only so much you can do. It's such a multi-layered process to end that or make it better.

SCOTT: Yes. And I think that what folks have to understand is this doesn't have to be an either/or, right. We have this conversation about police reform an ethical policing, productivity from policing and constitutional ethical policing are not mutually exclusive. They go hand in hand.

Our department as we are now at 83 percent of consent decree recommendations they were on demonstrated initial compliance within our police reform effort as we built in our new use of force policy, how to deal with transporting prisoners, how to deal with young people.

All that work, our productivity has gone up. Even less (INAUDIBLE). Last year we had a 19 percent increase of gun arrests in Baltimore, seizing over 2,600 weapons, 485 of them ghost guns over year to year, including also having a 5 percent reduction in non-fatal shootings and a small reduction in homicides but it's still not enough because we have to do all of it.

We have to do investments in communities like the one I was in yesterday that are victimized from systemic racism and disinvestment that happen on purpose. But we also have to hold people accountable.

This is not an either/or. It's a both/and. And we need to step up in our country to deal with that because when you look at countries around the world, they don't have this problem and people don't have access to these weapons because 60 percent of the weapons that we recover here in Baltimore come from other states.

DEAN: And of course, this is happening while the country is still processing what we saw out of Memphis, this footage that was just released in the last 48 hours where a black man lost his life at the hands of police in this violent attack.

It's something your city dealt with in a way with Freddie Gray back in 2015. You were not mayor then, but it is your city. I'm wondering if you can share from your perspective, what impact that sort of violence is having on black communities, on police. How do you begin to kind of build back trust when these horrific things keep happening?

SCOTT: Well, I'll first speak as a black man. For being a black man in this country, it's just continuous trauma for us.

[14:19:54]

SCOTT: Since the first African American man and woman was brought here to this country, we have been under attack. That's the reality and truth of it.

America doesn't want to hear that, but we've been under attack continuously. And for all the progress that we've made, when you see another black man murdered live and in color on police body camera and CCTV footage, it just reminds you of how far we have to go.

Your heart, of course, goes out to his family, his community, but the families and folks here in Baltimore who have been going through the same thing and all over the country. and it really causes us to pause and say, we know that we can be better.

But this country, Jessica, has to be willing to accept the fact and the reality that they have never truly valued black lives. They've always painted black men, and young black men in particular, to be super predators, the bogeyman, the thug. All of these images that they put out into the world so that people culturally are afraid of us.

Those things we have to have real conversations, and it's time for us to end the conversation. We need national police reform coming down from D.C. across the country so it's not optional for cities and states to opt in or not opt in or do it or not do it. That's what we have to do here. That bill needs to be introduced and have the pressure put on members

of Congress who are not like my family's (ph) congressional delegation that are afraid to do this because of what it would mean for some people. There are some people who are afraid that if black people are treated the same, if brown people are treated the same, if other folks are treated the same, that it will hurt their stature in America.

But if this country is ever going to live up to what we say we are, we have to do these things and do them now.

DEAN: Yes. well, I covered the last police reform negotiations, and there was so much hope that they could get that done a couple years ago. It just simply did not happen. We'll see what happens with this divided congress.

But Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore, thanks so much for taking time. We appreciate it.

SCOTT: Thank you, ma'am.

DEAN: And now to a bizarre phone call made by the man accused of attacking Nancy Pelosi's husband last year. On Friday the same day video footage from the Paul Pelosi attack was released, the suspect David DePape called a reporter at the TV station KTVW from the San Francisco County jail with what he called an important message for everyone in America.

CNN Capitol Hill reporter Annie Grayer joining us from Capitol Hill. Annie what did he say?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well Jessica, the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi is showing no remorse for his actions.

He called a San Francisco reporter shortly after footage of the attack came out where he said he wished he had been more prepared when he went to Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home. And in the clip I'm about to show you, he doesn't mention Nancy or Paul Pelosi by name, but shares a conspiracy that he believes a number of individuals are part of that's hurting democracy. Take a listen to this clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID DEPAPE, PAUL PELOSI'S ASSAILANT: Civil liberty isn't dying. It's been killed, systematically and deliberately. The people killing it have names and addresses. I've got their names and addresses so I could pay them a little visit.

I want to apologize to everyone. I messed up. What I did was really bad. I'm so sorry I didn't get more of them. It's my own fault. No one else is to blame. I should have come better prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRAYER: So Jessica, this is just one of the conspiracy theories that we're learning that the Paul Pelosi attacker has grasped onto. DEAN: It's really chilling. It's incredibly detached from reality and

frightening. What else are we learning about his motivations.

GRAYER: So on Friday, in addition to footage of the attack coming out and before this phone call, we also got from a California court an earlier interview that the attacker did with San Francisco police where he goes into a number of his motivations for going after Nancy Pelosi and ultimately attacking Paul Pelosi.

What we learned is that he was really motivated by some extreme baseless, right wing conspiracy theories.

Take a listen to some of that interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEPAPE: It's just like an endless (EXPLETIVE DELETED). The whole (EXPLETIVE DELETED) idea is until they were finally able to steal the election (INAUDIBLE). I was going to hold her hostage and talk to her and basically tell her what I was going to do.

If she told the truth, I was going to let her go. If she (EXPLETIVE DELETED) lied, that would have been very bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:24:53]

GRAYER: So the point of playing these clips, Jessica, is it shows the real dangers of these baseless right wing conspiracies and how they really can be a direct link to the uptick in violence that we know exist with public figures and politicians today, Jessica.

DEAN: Right. Extreme baseless conspiracy theories -- you had exactly the right words for it.

All right. Annie Grayer reporting for us, thanks so much.

And still to come this afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to strengthen Jewish settlements in response to a deadly attack near a synagogue. We're going to have a live report from Jerusalem when we come back.

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[14:29:55]

DEAN: Police in Israel say they've sealed off the home of the gunman who carried out a deadly attack near a synagogue in Jerusalem.

[14:30:01]

Israeli officials also say that home will be demolished and the suspect's family is under arrest. Seven people were killed in Friday's attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also vowing to strengthen Jewish settlements in response to the shooting.

CNN's Hadas Gold is live for us in Jerusalem.

Hadas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in that region for some pretty high-stakes diplomacy. It was an already planned trip but this is some pretty incredible timing.

What can we expect?

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there's an extra sense of urgency around the secretary of state's trip. As you noted, it was preplanned but couldn't come at a more important time after the last few days here that have seen some of the worst bloodshed that this region has seen in such a short amount of time in some years. And there's a really sense amongst officials here that the temperature, the atmosphere is so charged, it's so rising, it's already essentially in a crisis situation.

There's a lot of fears here that one little spark, another event of some kind will completely blow everything up. Now, top of mind for the secretary of state while he will be here will be, of course, discussions with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, trying to bring that temperature down, trying to do anything to bring a sense of calm.

One of the things that will be likely a top discussion will be the resumption of security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The Palestinian Authority cut that off on Thursday in the wake of a deadly Israeli military raid in Jenin that Israel says was targeting militants. But we know of at least one official that was killed as a result.

And then we had that attack on Friday and another shooting on Saturday. The Israeli cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing a series of steps that they say will be to try to fight against terrorism. But the Palestinian ministry of affairs is condemning those steps and calling them collective punishment -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Hadas Gold live for us in Jerusalem, following the story, thanks so much.

And we'll be right back.

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[14:35:59]

DEAN: Former Vice President Mike Pence now admits that mistakes were made and that he's responsible after classified documents were found in his Indiana home last week. About a dozen documents marked as classified were found at Pence's house after he directed his attorney to search his home.

And with me now to discuss this further, someone who knows classified documents very well. Glenn Gerstell is the former general counsel for the National Security Agency under Presidents Obama and Trump. Of course, we know Trump, Biden and now Pence have these classified

documents that have been found in their private homes.

Glenn, do you believe it's time to change the system?

GLENN GERSTELL, FORMER NSA GENERAL COUNSEL UNDER OBAMA AND TRUMP: Absolutely. We definitely need to change the system. We found out, thanks to president Trump who failed to turn overall these documents when originally required to and didn't comply with a subpoena that we actually have a problem that is unique, almost unique to the time of presidential transitions.

Previously, we thought when dealing with classified information that we were worried about two principle things, one was an employee who deliberately intentionally walked off with classified documents, perhaps to give it to a foreign adversary or leak it to the press or do something inappropriate, whistle-blower in a misguided way, or it was an inadvertent situation where someone accidentally walked off with a piece of paper, paper clipped to something.

But we're now seeing that we have a systemic problem. At a time of presidential transitions when literally millions of pieces of paper need to be packed up in the last week and officials need to be working right up until the last minute on inauguration day, until 11:59 in case there's a terrorist attack that morning, they need to receive classified information that morning.

And so, all of a sudden, we're on a situation where in the last couple days of an administration, massive amounts of documents need to be organized, sorted through and packed off. So, in some ways, it's no wonder a mistake can happen here and there. I'm not condoning it. I'm not excusing it. But that's why we need a systematic approach to this.

DEAN: That changes things. Yeah. And today, we know that two members of the Senate intelligence committee called on the Justice Department to give them access to the classified documents that were found at the Trump and Biden properties so they can do an assessment if they pose any security risks. We can listen to that clip and then we'll come back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Our job is to make sure there's not an intelligence compromise. And while the director of national intelligence had been willing to brief us earlier, now that you've got the special counsel, the notion that we're going to be left in limbo and we can't do our job, that just cannot stand.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): I don't know how congressional oversight on the documents, knowing what they are in anyway impedes an investigation. These are probably materials we already have access to. We just don't know which ones they are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: So, that's obviously the chairman and ranking member of the Senate intelligence Committee, Democratic and Republican. They came out, Glenn, last week, I was there from their classified -- they were getting informed about all of this and they were very upset, both of them that they were not getting access to these documents. They were adamant they had to get access to assess what the security risk could have been.

Do you think that the DOJ should be sharing these documents with the lawmakers?

GERSTELL: So, we need to strike a balance. And, obviously, the director of national intelligence is trying to do that between, on the one hand, keeping Congress fully informed about this so that the intelligence committees of the House and Senate can do their damage assessment, which is very important, while at the same time not possibly interfering with a possible criminal investigation. So, there's a balance there.

We've seen in the case of the Mueller report years ago where it was possible for Congress to obtain some information while there was an ongoing investigation. This is obviously something that the executive branch and Congress are going to have to sort out as they do with so many problems.

But it's important for both the executive branch and Congress to understand the nature of what might have been classified -- I'm sorry -- what might have been compromised because we're worried not only about the substance of the piece of paper, what it actually says, is it really a significant secret?

[14:40:08]

But also, even if it isn't that secret, whether it reveals what the intelligence committee calls sources and methods. In other words, how we found out that information.

And just one quick example -- you can imagine that we might have a piece of paper that indicates where troops are located because we found out in a certain way from a foreign adversary where their troops are located. Well, three days later, that piece of paper may no longer be relevant, because the troops have moved, but what might still be very relevant is exactly how we found that, what satellite did we intercept? What communication did we intercept?

So, even on the face of it, the piece of paper may not look all that exciting, it may reveal something very important about our national security.

DEAN: Sure. Is there an asset, a person on the other side of that that could be put in danger?

All right. Glenn Gerstell, thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate your analysis there. Thanks.

GERSTELL: Thank you.

DEAN: Still to come, they are the lungs of the planet. Next, what Brazil's new president is doing to save the Amazon rainforest.

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[14:45:32]

DEAN: Brazil has launched its first raids against illegal logging in an effort to protect the Amazon rainforest. The raids come after Brazil's newly elected President Lula da Silva who pledged to restore the environmental protections that his predecessor, former President Bolsonaro dismantled. Lula was sworn into office for a third time earlier this month after defeating his far right predecessor in a tight runoff back in October.

And during his address to Congress, Lula said one of his goals is to reach zero deforestation in the Amazon.

CNN's Rafael Romo has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They move slowly through the jungle. Their weapons are cocked and loaded. It doesn't take long before they find what they're looking for. Illegal logging has been a challenge in Brazil for decades, but it's gotten worse, experts say, during the last four years, when President Jair Bolsonaro was in power.

The commander in charge of the unit conducting the raid says the previous government only cared about solving emergency situations but lacked strategic planning to really combat deforestation. His team later makes an arrest. In his first speech after taking office on January 1st, current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said one of his government's goals is to reach zero deforestation in the Amazon adding that Brazil doesn't need to get rid of its trees to remain an agricultural powerhouse.

After a series of massive wildfires in the Amazon in August of 2019, then President Bolsonaro said his government had zero tolerance not only for crime in general, but also for environmental issues.

BRIAN WINTER, EDITOR IN CHIEF, AMERICAS QUARTERLY: That wasn't the case under Bolsonaro. During his government, his four years in power we saw deforestation levels increase by 40 percent during that time. And so, the challenge for Lula here is going to be enormous.

ROMO: Between 2019 and 2022, the four years Bolsonaro was president, Brazil lost more than 45,000 square kilometers of forest, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research or INPE. By comparison when Lula was first in power between 2002 and 2010, deforestation shrunk by 65 percent.

WINTER: The foresting party seen as desirable by loggers and others because not just to the trees themselves which, of course, they can sell, but also because of what happens when the trees go away, principally cattle pastures, soy and other crops.

ROMO: Back in Para state, other agents with the Brazilian environmental agency destroy an illegal sawmill.

Agent Natalia Castro says she's glad they're once again able to act against illegal deforestation and remain committed to the Amazon survival.

Protecting it is not only vital for Brazil, but also for the world. According to the World Bank the Amazon, quote, hosts 40 percent of the world's remaining rainforest.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: And for more on Brazil's anti-deforestation push, I want to bring in Daniela Lerda. She's Brazil's representative at Nia Tero. It's an organization that works with indigenous peoples and movements worldwide.

Daniella, thanks for joining us today.

First, I just want to get your reaction to what we just heard about in that story to these raids and what they're doing in Brazil.

DANIELA LERDA, BRAZIL REPRESENTATIVE AT NIA TERO: Thanks, Jessica.

Well, certainly, things have been out of control for the last four years. You heard all the numbers, the statistics of the worst fires and the worst deforestation in the last 15 years under the previous president. Lula is coming in to show some action, combat illegal crime, forest crime and make sure he stands by indigenous people in the protection of forests. So, it's a new moment for us.

DEAN: Yeah, and, Brazil's president has pledged to reverse the environmental policies of Bolsonaro and is trying to reach zero deforestation. It's ambitious what he's trying to do. How realistic do you think it is?

LERDA: Well, if he stands by the promise to remove illegal gold miners from indigenous lands, we're see something awful news this week with the Yanomami people who are dying of malnutrition and malaria and other infections, diseases that are totally preventable.

[14:50:09]

And in the past, we have those things under control. And with the lack of enforcement on forest protection in the last four years it has gotten out of hand. So with people like the Yanomami, the Kayapo people, the Munduruku people, these are indigenous peoples who are holding up the rainforest. They're our biggest allies. We have to protect their lands. We have to make sure illegal crimes are out of their lands. We have to bring new forest areas under protection.

All of those things are things that we have done in the past. Lula knows how to do it. He declared a national emergency, what's happening with the Yanomami, and there is now medical attention being deployed to those people. So, there is short-term actions and long-term issues that we're going to have to deal with.

And restaffing government agencies who are responsible for forest funds, it's one of the priorities. Funding those is something that governments like the U.S. and other foreign governments have promised to help Brazil to do. There is certainly a lot of interest in the Amazon and in protecting the forest for climate, but also for stopping the loss of further biodiversity. So, we'll see. We wish them the best of luck and we're here to support them.

But I'd say that indigenous peoples are really the biggest allies in the place to begin. They're responsible for 13 percent of the Amazon.

DEAN: Yeah, and I think what people maybe don't realize, it is more than 145 million people that call it home. It is just there's a lot of people there.

We know that Bolsonaro allies are continuing to control Brazil's Congress, so they've got a bit of a divided government there, which we know about that here in the U.S. How could that make the partnership with indigenous peoples more difficult over the next four years? Or do you think it will?

LERDA: Well, the agenda that -- the responsibility of protecting indigenous peoples is something that constitutionally protected. So, if Congress wants to try and change that, they could try to do that. But there is a -- they would have to take it up with the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court in recent votes has been favorable towards indigenous peoples. There is a major vote regarding the demarcation of indigenous lands so the recognition of indigenous lands is a major decision in the Supreme Court at the moment. Now we'll have to keep our attention to that and make sure that the result is favorable toward indigenous people.

But there is not a lot that the Congress could do to take away the rights. What they can do and tried to do is change norms and decrees and pass new laws to allow for things that weren't previously on the table like mining on indigenous lands or exploring lands for agricultural purpose. Those things are things that indigenous people want. So, there constitutional right is observed and protected. It's going to be hard for Congress to do that on their own.

DEAN: To take it away.

All right. Daniela Lerda for us, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you making time.

LERDA: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.

DEAN: Yeah.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:57:46] DEAN: Amazon is expanding its push into health care with a prescription drug delivery service that will prime members to receive unlimited delivery on dozens of generic medications.

Let's bring in CNN business reporter Nathaniel Meyersohn.

Nathaniel, how does this work?

NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: All right. So, Amazon wants to be our pharmacy now. It is launching a new $5 a month delivery service for generic medications, it is going to cover about 60 generic medications. This is exclusively for prime members.

The experts that I talked to say that it is going to mean lower prices on generic drugs but it is not going to mean that much for the more expensive name brand drugs which are typically pricier than generics.

DEAN: All right. And so that should be very interesting. Another option for people.

We also know that business is booming for dollar stores. A new study finding dollar stores are the fastest growing food retailer in the U.S. I don't think that you would think that. Why is that?

MEYERSOHN: Right. So there are about 35,000 dollar stores in the United States. To give you a sense of that number, that's more than the number of locations for McDonald's and Starbucks combined.

And now, the study shows they're the fastest growing food retailer in the country and that is due to rising income inequality, the shrinking middle class and the high price of groceries that are pushing customers to turn to dollar stores.

There is a lot of criticism, though, of dollar stores that they don't sell much healthy food, you're not going to find appreciate produce or meat at dollar stores. So that is where more are restricting the growth of dollar stores. Cleveland, Birmingham, New Orleans and Oklahoma City, they've all passed legislation to curve the growth of dollar stores.

DEAN: Very interesting.

All right. Nathaniel Meyersohn keeping us up to date on all of those stories, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

And thank you for joining me today. I'm Jessica Dean, in for Fredricka Whitfield.

"CNN NEWSROOM" continues with Jim Acosta right now.